# Evil Dead II question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-dead-ii-question/74594>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 2, 2001, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-dead-ii-question/74594 "2001-08-02T03:39:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2001, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-dead-ii-question/74594/1 "2001-08-02T03:39:45Z")

</div>

I was just watching Evil Dead 2 for the umpteenth time and during the opening something occured to me. In it they refer to the “Book of the Dead” as “Necronomicom ex mortis”. Now its been a good 10 years since I took Latin(plus i was only in 7th grade at the time), but isn’t adding “ex mortis” redundant? If I remember correctly, Necronomicon means book of the dead by itself. well, actually “the names of the dead” or something along those lines, but you know what i mean. Any help is greatly appreciated. thanks  
5-HT

“To God! He loves thee not! The god thou servest is thine own appetite, wherein is fixed the love of Beelzebub. To him I’ll build an alter and church, and offer lukewarm blood of newborn babies”

now thats a quote

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2001, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-dead-ii-question/74594/2 "2001-08-02T04:07:26Z")

</div>

From [http://www.bruce-campbell.com](http://www.bruce-campbell.com) (bolding mine):

> [@](#):
>
> ASSUMPTION: Did anyone notice that the Necronomicon has two names for it? In ED 1, the prof called it The “Naturum de Montum” but in the prolouge of ED 2 it is named the **“Necronomicon ex Mortis”** and both are supposed to translate to mean (roughly) “The Book of the Dead” (the second one **translates to “To join the book of the recently dead”** )
> 
> TRUTH: Okay, what’s your point? Different names, same thing…

As an Evil Dead fan, you should love Campbell’s site…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-dead-ii-question/74594/3 "2001-08-02T22:52:58Z")

</div>

from [da master](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mnecromicon.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Lovecraft claimed the Greek term Necronomicon is derived from nekros (corpse), nomos (law) and eikon (image), hence the book title is “The image/picture of the Law of the Dead.” Unfortunately, this derivation is not consistent with ancient Greek grammatical constructions. There have been several other attempts to interpret the term, the most satisfactory (IMHO) being: nekros (corpse), nemo (to divide, classify, or study) and -ikon (neuter adjective suffice), hence “A Classification of the Dead.”